The invention relates to alternators for internal combustion engines.
Alternators for internal combustion engines are known in the prior art. The alternator is driven by a rotary crankshaft of the engine and supplies electrical power for the engine. Various engine control functions, such as ignition timing, injector timing, etc., require that crankshaft position be known. Typically, in the prior art, angular position of the crankshaft is provided by a reluctor or reluctance wheel, e.g. having ferrous material in an encoder pattern, such as a missing tooth or a given tooth pattern, which passes a magnet or sensor such that the flux or field density changes, i.e. changes the reluctance relationship. The sensor may be a Hall effect sensor, a VR (variable reluctance) sensor, and so on. For small, low-cost engines, externally mounted sensors and encoder wheels are cost prohibitive.
The present invention address and solves the noted need, including providing an integrated engine encoder alternator, using the alternator to additionally provide the noted encoding function.